Walney Offshore, currently the largest wind farm in the world, was officially inaugurated on 9 February 2012 by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Edward Davey. The £1.2 billion wind farm consists of Walney 1 and Walney 2, located around 15km off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.

The 102 turbines will be able to generate up to 367MW of electricity, enough to power around 320,000 homes. Walney has been built in record time by its Danish owners, DONG Energy, despite the challenging conditions of the East Irish Sea and the recent harsh winter weather.

Although the wind farm is now officially open, work continues on commissioning the turbines and installing armour stones around their foundations to protect them against scour.

Wilding says: ‘Walney Offshore is great news for Cumbria as it will supply thousands of homes with clean electricity.It won’t be the “world’s largest wind farm” for long though, as the 625MW Phase 1 of London Array is due for completion by the end of the year.’

Sources:Dredging Todayand BBC